About Updates and History

[RadioMarkW]

Ok, a while ago I posted about systems I watch being labeled with an update then I go to see what has been changed or added and I cannot find anything new. I was told to look at the 'history" and there I did find that something in a different agency or other item has changed. I learned................

Now how ever I am finding things like "Changed Talkgroup Category: IDNR - Region 5 to IDNR - Region 5"

and "Changed Site # 1315 (Marshalltown, IA (Rebanded)) to 1315 (Marshalltown, IA (Rebanded))"

Or "Sub-category (Earlville, Village of Sort 99) changed to (Earlville, Village of Sort: 99)".

This has been happening a LOT lately. Now somebody please tell me what exactly was changed or updated?!?!?!?!?!?!?

Are these really changes or updates or do some people just have a LOT of time on their hands???????????

Thanks,

Mark

 

[RadioMarkW]

Guidelines for administrators

I guess no one wants to answer my question.

But it is not helpful having my watch list items say they have been updated and then finding NO actual updates.

It sort of defeats the purpose of having flagged updates.

Is no one else bothered by this?

Are there NO guidelines for the administrators?

I do admire people who take on the task of administrators, BUT some do seem to go overboard with the "additions and changes" to the various county, and state systems.

Thank you,

Mark

P. S. Here is anouther recent example "Changed Talkgroup Category: Sangamon County to Sangamon County" and it was listed twice. Now again, what exactly was changed?

thank you again,

mark

 

[ericcarlson]

That could simply indicate that the talkgroup category sort order was changed. For sites, the site detail was updated; click on the site name to see its details.

 

[wv_mountaineer]

Strange...

I have run into this also and have run the same question up the flag pole. I got the same answer as to checking out the history. Did that but still lost, as nothing seem to change. TGID's were still the same, the order of the TG's were still the same, the site names were still the same, the site frequencies were still the same, then I looked deeper into the site info and found that the range of the site was changed by 5 miles.

To me that wouldn't have been a noticeable change to anyone. It is just a guide line anyways, right? I mean I travel with my XT and use a GPS along with it so I set up the range with the way I travel so I pick up the most traffic I can while mobile. So this info really doesn't mean squat. You have to take into consideration the weather and terrain for any transmission you are trying to receive.

Sometimes I just think that folks like to see the green and have a fresh date stating the the web page for that area has been updated and up to snuff. Hey whatever pulls their trigger.... I'm just glad to see that someone else besides me wanted to know. My wife told me I was just crazy and took this to serious. Maybe so, but I just had to ask!

 

[loumaag]

DB Changes

Mark, et al:

This is a topic that comes up all too often to get much response; however, I will address this once again.

First, an update to the the database actually requires something to be changed for those update flags (color switch, history update) to activate. If you see an update notification, something was changed, period.

Second, the change may not be so evident to you or to even me, but something changed. Some items which will show a color change but not be quick to spot are deletions, changes in spelling, changes in capitalization, changes to the GPS coordinates or map changes, changing modes or types.

Finally, most other changes are pretty easy to spot; however, no DB Admin is going to take the time to notify anyone of any change (much less one that is hard to spot) every time something he/she changes something in the DB. Just take it on faith that if the color changes on a DB area that you are interested in, something is different. Check the history, if you don't see something obvious then take the time to look for the not-so-obvious. If you still can't see the change then either don't worry about it or if you are using download programming, then do it again for that area, entity, etc.

 

[RadioMarkW]

Mark, et al:

This is a topic that comes up all too often to get much response; however, I will address this once again.

First, an update to the the database actually requires something to be changed for those update flags (color switch, history update) to activate. If you see an update notification, something was changed, period.

Second, the change may not be so evident to you or to even me, but something changed. Some items which will show a color change but not be quick to spot are deletions, changes in spelling, changes in capitalization, changes to the GPS coordinates or map changes, changing modes or types.

Finally, most other changes are pretty easy to spot; however, no DB Admin is going to take the time to notify anyone of any change (much less one that is hard to spot) every time something he/she changes something in the DB. Just take it on faith that if the color changes on a DB area that you are interested in, something is different. Check the history, if you don't see something obvious then take the time to look for the not-so-obvious. If you still can't see the change then either don't worry about it or if you are using download programming, then do it again for that area, entity, etc.

Thank you Loumaag,

I had hoped you would check in. You have been a long time administrator and good for answering our questions. Finally a last question, Does the administrator flag when changes are made or are they automatic (when a change is made)?

I have looked at history and have even quoted some of the changes that confused me. It has been much worst lately with a new administrator that has been VERY prolific. Back in June ALL but four of my watched areas were flagged. Only two had changes that were not VERY minor. Every "change" was done by one administrator. I really like the idea of flagging areas that have been changed, and I think I can safely say that we all admire the time that you (the administrators) put in but flagging small changes like spelling, capitalization, punctuation is rather trivial to FLAG......

You say not to worry about it but I do like to keep my scanner up to date and I watch a LARGE area as I travel a lot, so looking up changes takes me a long time too. And when there are trivial changes that have been flagged....... I feel my time is wasted .............After all, I am a paid subscriber, I do contribute frequencies and information (when someone else doesn't report it first) and I feel my time is worth something too.

Again, THANK YOU,

Mark

 

[loumaag]

... Finally a last question, Does the administrator flag when changes are made or are they automatic (when a change is made)?...

Mark,
The flagging is automatic. There a couple of things that can be done and marked not to show a change in history, but it takes a proactive action to mark those small things to not affect the history. I think though that if that is chosen the color flag for the county will still get triggered; I admit that that would be more confusing than anything. :lol:

ETA: Sorry for the delay in replying, but I have been out of town all week.

 

[RadioMarkW]

Mark,
The flagging is automatic. There a couple of things that can be done and marked not to show a change in history, but it takes a proactive action to mark those small things to not affect the history. I think though that if that is chosen the color flag for the county will still get triggered; I admit that that would be more confusing than anything. :lol:

ETA: Sorry for the delay in replying, but I have been out of town all week.

Thanks for your reply!! Perhaps something eventually could be done to not flag trivial changes. By the way no problem with the late reply, after all you do have a life outside this forum also!!!

Take care,

Mark